Your Committee met again on 27th and as per Secretary Dot’s email, in line with Gov’ regulations and subject to any further NT guidance, we are working to restart workdays after the next Covid relaxation planned for 12th April.
April 18th – We have pencilled in a first small workday (max. 6 people) at Shugborough
FromMay – Full programme for summer months aiming to be published by Helen
Email event details, as in the past will follow, including any H&S / Covid guidance which may vary by NT place.
…So start cleaning those boots and getting ready!!
Groundhog Day ……in a good way……as workday leader Mags recounts:
Sunday 15th saw us at Kinver Edge … again. Eleven in total, each of us had already been to a post-lockdown workday at the site, so were used to, but very mindful of the instructions on social distancing and sanitising hands and equipment.
The day was a continuation of the work from a fortnight before (see Nov. 1st post) – the tumbril still in place for our bonfire.
As leader, I missed being able to provide cake, but we still had a “no cake o’clock” after about an hour’s work. I was also keeping an eye on the weather. It was bright when we arrived, and for quite a while thereafter. Useful for checking which trees needed to be removed to allow the sun into places where adders might bask. But we could see very dark clouds threatening over the ridge. When they arrived, thankfully they only delivered short showers. Not enough to noticeably dampen the spirits, nor the fire – but enough to create weather to catch the eye!
Working beyond last time’s glades into the scrub, it was not difficult to get lost. Honing in on the fire, armed with brash, easy enough; but returning to your spot to carry on thinning was not so straightforward. It was too easy to follow a track too far down the slope or go beyond the same place in among the trees. By the end of the day all was cleared and burned; every tool accounted for and newly sanitised.
Assistant Ranger Tom also took the chance to vary the chainsaw action, trying his hand at the creation of standing deadwood for habitats, rather than felling and clearing – as the pic’s show.
All in all, well worth getting out in the fresh air … and the smoke!!
Ed’s PS: After the missed get togethers of the recent virtual AGM and cancelled Bonfire stay-away workdays, Sunday was also the chance for Chairman Chris to hand out socially distanced SSNTV annual awards for last year: Hours Prize (Leela) and Special Mentions for Workday Leading (Russell, Peter and David B).
A happy, lucky band of SSNTV volunteers assembled at Kinver on a marvellous, sunny Sunday morning, ready to work with Ranger Tom.
Our mission: to help save Kinver’s important vertebrate residents, the baby adders that will come out in the Spring, from starving to death!
This happens because when baby adders hatch, they desperately need to bask in the sun to warm up and generate enough energy to enable them to hunt and eat. Unfortunately, too much dense, scrubby undergrowth on the Heath and naughty, downright badly behaved dogs force them back into the shadows. There they stay, too frightened to come out, getting colder and colder and gradually starve to death. A very sad story.
So SSNTV volunteers to the rescue. Their weapons: bowsaws and loppers!
Their task: to clear little glades in the scrub of oaks and birch – to discourage errant dogs from rampaging through and still allow enough light and warmth to permeate the ground storey – just right for baby adders. If even then, they do still get scared and look to hide, there’s enough cover close at hand!
A wonderfully warm but socially-distanced time was had by all thanks to the Covid regulations and the moveable tumbril. Things couldn’t have got much better (except if there’d been cake!).
Thank goodness for SSNTV! Here’s hoping we get out again soon – fingers crossed!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY NT – as many have been writing – it was TODAY……
In this our Group’s 40th year, 18, – no, last minute correction, 17 SSNTV’ers made it out to Benthall Hall today to help with that recently announced NT plan to plant millions of new trees to combat climate change….so, we need to cut and coppice a few of the existing trees and there were plenty of those on the woodland ridge on the edge of the Benthall Estate, overlooking the fast disappearing, nearby power station today…..
Full workday report to follow, but in the meantime…
HAPPY 125th BIRTHDAY once again NT
….oh, yes and thanks to Gardener in Charge, Nick for the birthday cake.
A dank, dark Sunday morning saw members of the group come out on an increasingly rare visit to Sunnycroft, Wellington. Large numbers appeared for the unusual task of starting the conservation project on Sunnycroft’s glasshouse. As everyone gathered in the car park, you could hear the surprised voices, as one after another seldom seen member was greeted, ending with NT’s Midlands garden adviser Pam Smith.
Seventeen members meant three teams could be formed to take on the challenges Head (and only!) garden Joel had for us.
Primarily we were invited to return to provide the labour for removing and relocating decorative stones from inside the glasshouse whilst it is being restored.
Task 2: remove four laurel bushes that had encroached into the herbaceous boarder – roots and all.
Task 3: reducing the height and trimming the hedge on the main drive.
Before stones in the glasshouse could be removed, bedding tray gravel and rusting, corrugated metal sheets had to be extracted. Now we could get to the intended stones. However this proved disappointing, as nearly all the material found was not of the expected kind!
Sunnycroft’s conservatory is a significant historic structure in its own right. It was supplied in 1899 by R. Halliday & Company and is listed Grade II. It is embellished with stained glass, decorative finials and ironwork – being small in size, it was designed to fit in with the “compact” Sunnycroft estate. Unfortunately, time has not been kind, and the structure is starting to show its age. Hence it is in need of full restoration. The Trust believe there are only three examples of this kind in existence, which makes this one even more special.
But with the day’s work complete, conservation of the glasshouse can commence hopefully in the spring of 2020.
Shrubs extracted through brute force, it only remained to tackle the unruly top of the green hedge.
To reduce its height, Joel allowed our editor to take charge of his new battery-powered extendable hedge trimmer – as workday leader I think a brave move! It was a challenge to control this monster all day. But with a second smaller, but more heavy-duty machine also on hand, after a whole day’s work the resulting hedge does look the part!
There was a big turnout on a grim weather day with fog, low cloud, drizzle, rain and cold temperatures. After all of the recent rainfall the conditions were very muddy, but we just kept on going, with the work keeping us warm and the fire to dry us off.
We continued our work from a month ago at Stretton Westwood
quarry opening up the route for a new path to be created. Working alongside Al and Kate, who provided
plenty of big trees to process, we felled others and cleared the rampant
bramble undergrowth.
During a break in the work, Kate helped a few people to find
some great fossils in the 400 million year old Silurian limestone rocks that
were formed when the area was a coral reef in a shallow tropical sea. Could
have done with some of that tropical weather on Sunday!
Despite the weather we made a real impact on the path route
and look forward to seeing it in use in the not too distant future.
A great way to start October: a weekend working in wonderful Walcot Wood with superb autumnal weather – so for the first time in the last few visits weather did not interrupt our plans!
NT’s Countryside Manager Pete C, mindful that the group comprised several who were new to the site initially gave us a detailed, informative, inspirational and fascinating tour – explaining the mix of habitats; plans to replant new oaks from acorns; and how NT maintains this rare patch. Stoically other SSNTV’ers stayed behind to start the fire and begin cutting the brash.
1 SSNTV’er!
2 here!
Yep,..1 hiding
Cutting….
Yet to cut….
…making progress…
We focused on opening up a bank across the lower fenced section of the Wood (up to the gate linking to the upper part). The aim, which we could see positively nearby was in short, to create more woodland pasture. We gave particular consideration to the welfare of the majestic adjacent veteran oaks and also the prospective future grazing delights and convenience of the Hebridean sheep – the local live-in lawnmowers and maintenance team!
Should I eat this??!!
Sunday’s version…
Yum……!
Weekend culinary experiences ranged from the sublime (Leela’s stunning cake) to the ridiculous (workday leader’s Saturday charcoal jacketed potatoes – happily Dave’s outdoor cooking expertise meant browner, less blackened versions on Sunday). Thanks to all for that!
Where ARE those jacket pots’?
Admiring the achievements…
10 volunteers made the long trek out over the weekend – a terrific team!. As he departed on Saturday, Pete was already pleased with our progress. I think Sunday’s input should leave him delighted.
..All the way to the top gate
…And then there was light …and some trees left standing…
Edge ranger Al, has a predicament…. he has a new tenant farmer for one of his fields alongside the A458 but the farmer wants a stock proof fence to keep his sheep in.
The livestock is due to arrive on 1st May and we are only two weeks away with 160 meters of hedge to be cut back so the new fence can be erected by a contractor starting on 23rd April.
What can he do?… Answer: Call in SSNTV!
Its Easter Sunday…will anyone turn up? (The group have not been out on a bank holiday for a number of years – they do need some days off to build up their strength after all)
Well Al need not have worried, eleven members and one member’s visitor all
the way from London met up at the designated lane. Al dragged assistant Kate along as well.
In no time fire number one was burning away. So off to the other end of the field for fire number two. Both were blazing by cake o’clock, as the old fence started to appear from under the hawthorn and among the brambles.
The sun blazed down, the heat of the fires and the sweat pouring out of everyone, mean frequent breaks for water had to be taken as the hedge shrank in size and the bonfires got bigger.
Cue reddened faces and relief, as by the end of the day the task was complete, old hedge was removed and the group left Al and Kate to take down the old barbed wire ready for the next phase of work to start on Tuesday morning.
Our EVENTS page has been updated with new dates for your diary.
If you have volunteered with us before…., then you know how to book onto the workdays.
If you’re interested to volunteer with us for the first time…., then please contact us for more info – just pop over to our CONTACTS PAGE and send us your details so our web fairy can put you in touch with us.
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Just click the Facebook link in the sidebar to read recent workday reports and see more pictures (don’t worry, you don’t have to have a Facebook account to read the updates!).
